Truth be told, being Canadian, I find that I don't know much about America that isn't negative. All I hear about are the bad things, and I understand that I can't make a judgement on Americans without learning more about them, but why do I only hear the bad things? Why do I hear that American troops have killed 4 of our soldiers, reasons unknown, that America, although a great help to the world, only gives out under 1 percent of their GNP, while Norway donates over 9? I think what non-Americans see is a lot of negative stuff, and we wonder why the American people don't correct this. Why do they let, quite frankly, bad politicians run their country? America has the potential to be so much more than what they are, or at least what we see.
And regarding FIRST, they HAVE officially changed their name and dropped the US (so I'm informed), but why the pervading Americaness? I understand that it was originally an American thing, but it's NOT anymore, and being a sensitive person, i'm sort of hurt that Americans won't acknowledge Canada, or Brazil or England for that matter, as a really important part of FIRST. Why must the underlying Americaness remain? Okay, the competiton started because a group of people thought America needed to boost it's technology level. Who says Canada doesn't need that too? It's not a special American thing, and don't let's get into the brain drain we're experiencing...
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